What Is The Power In One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest

Samantha Henderson Comp. 104 : October Book Report Teresa Long 31 October 2016 One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest withholds many lessons throughout the story as well as in the text itself. In the opening lines of the novel it is learned that the perspective is that of an Indian man that pretends to be deaf and dumb to fool those at the mental institution. He believed that everything at the institution is run by the “combine” including the head nurse of the ward, Miss Ratched.

Power Unit Essay People tend to react similarly when put into physical situations that trigger fight or flight responses because those reactions are hardwired into human DNA. Simultaneously, natural responses impact mental states and physical states, which allows general statements about humans to be made that are valid for the vast majority. These human instincts can be seen throughout modern entertainment- movies, books, television shows- such as Cool Hand Luke and One Flew

In the novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, by Ken Kesey, one can say that McMurphy’s tragic flaw is his ego of thinking he can win any situation with his charm. When McMurphy walks into the combine, he instantly charms the patients when he shakes everyone's hand. Any circumstance that is a task to McMurphy’s distinguished character, he will dissident against. In the mental ward, the controlling, devious Nurse Ratched delivers that precise test.

Journal #1 One main event that occurs in the first third of One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest is the first group meeting Mr. McMurphy joined on the ward. Nurse Ratched begins to talk about another patient named Harding, and his issues with his wife. After listening to what the nurse had to say, McMurphy made an inappropriate joke concerning the matter of Harding’s wife. Everyone was amused with his joke, except for Nurse Ratched.

The protagonist, Randle P McMurphy is a fiery, anti-authoritarian who was full of sarcasm and a mean left hook. Randle was physically described as red headed, with tattoos and physically fit. McMurphy was introduced into the story at admissions. He had been recently accused of statutory rape, although McMurphy claims that he the victim lied about her age and wanted him significantly. McMurphy’s strength exudes from him, possibly because he was a war hero shorty prior to his discharge from the Marine Corps due to insubordination.

Rationale: A man named Randle Mc Murphy is confined to a mental hospital for committing minor crimes. The ward is under the strict rule of the head nurse, Nurse Ratched. Nurse Ratched is so obsessed with maintaining perfect order of the hospital that she will do anything, even torture and kill a patient if he seems to be highly disruptive. However, Mc Murphy starts revolting against the nurse by constantly making her lose her temper, and by promoting gambling to the other patients, and encouraging them to stand up for themselves.

Moment: “He twisted and thrashed around like a fish, back bowed and belly up, and when he got to his feet and shook himself a spray came off him in the moon like silver scales.” Pg 164 Fate. The one aspect that people try to change the most. The dappling with fate throughout Ken Kesey’s novel One

Freedom From Reality In a smaller world where freedom and the ability to think for one’s self is limited, Randle Patrick McMurphy, a man who despises authority, a man who wants to be set free, a man who rebels, overrules and goes against the Big Nurse’s manipulative dictatorship. Although, accused of being mentally ill, McMurphy uses this to his advantage to have an easier time inside the hospital rather than being locked up in prison. Yet, freedom is still not granted. Ken Kesey uses setting, conflict, and point of view in order to create a sub society of freedom in a mental hospital.

The whole asylum could be described as one big machine that creates an unnatural state for human beings and is running smoothly, until one day an outside force comes in to shake things up. Rather than being an evil person, Nurse Ratchet is a part of this perfect machine, like a cog in a watch, who represents authority and power in an oppressive society. Jack McMurphy is the free-spirited outside force that does what he wants, when he wants, disrupts order and constantly undermines Nurse Ratchets authority. The patients in the ward are the by-product of the manufacturing process and represent the weak individuals in a society that cannot fend for themselves. The patients believed they were already in a utopia, until McMurphy introduces his ideal

Control is something most of us have in our daily lives whether it is choosing what we eat or doing simple things such as singing in the shower. In One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesy the patients on the ward have lost control of what they may do or are fighting to keep the control as the Big Nurse attempts to take away their control. The Big Nurse represents being in total control over a situation. McMurphy shows the fight to keep control and retaliating against authority. Chief Bromden shows what happens after losing control and sanity.

Because the hospital ward, in Ken Kesey’s One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, complies with the restrictions of Nurse Ratched, McMurphy is seen as a manipulative instigator. Nevertheless, rebellion, such as McMurphy’s, is required for the powerless to free themselves from damaging constraints. Particularly, as Bromden realizes his increasing mental clarity (e.g. his improved sight), he gazes out the hospital window. Because the glass is covered with a metal mesh, Kesey implies McMurphy’s rebellious nature plants the seed for the patients’ freedom. At the window, Bromden notices, he “still had [his] eyes shut…like [he] was scared to look outside” (141).

One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest The movie I chose from the list to watch and review was One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. It was released under United Artists in November of 1975. The film was directed by Miloš Forman and stars Jack Nicholson as the protagonist, and Louise Fletcher as the antagonist. The screenplay was written by Lawrence Hauben and Bo Goldman, who based it off the book of the same name written by Ken Kesey.